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Japanese firm Tama Home has announced its entry into the Indian realty market with a pipeline of 12-18 projects entailing an investment of Rs 6,000 crore, in partnership with Singapore-headquartered Developer Group.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed firm has an annual sale of Rs 10,000 crore and builds 10,000 homes a year. Developer Group is promoted by Japanese investors, but managed by Indian professionals.
Tama Home and Developer Group will jointly build three housing projects, including two townships, in Ludhiana, Visakhapatnam and Chennai. The townships will be launched in the next four months at Ludhiana and Visakhapatnam. By the middle of 2015, a housing project will come up in Chennai. The three projects will have 3,500 housing units in all.
“India has tremendous potential for growth in housing. We have found a reliable partner in Developer Group to enter into the Indian market.... We want to replicate the Suzuki story in India," said Yasuhiro Tamaki, president and CEO of Tama Home.
When asked whether the decision to enter India was taken after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Japan, he said: “It was planned a year ago, but the process was expedited after the PM's visit.”
Developer Group chief executive officers David Rebello said: “Developer group and Tama Home will together develop 12-18 projects in the next five years at a cost of about Rs 6,000 crore. Our focus will be on housing segment, but we will do other projects as well. The projects will be funded through equity and domestic debt.”
Tama Home will have a stake in the Developer Group, which in turn will have a stake in Tama Home’s Indian arm.
Developer Group India Pvt Ltd, is buying land as well as partnering land owners to build projects. The joint venture firm would also look into possibilities of developing smart cities, commercial, hospitality projects.
Tama Home's entry into India comes a week after Japanese telecom group SoftBank bought a major stake in Snapdeal for $627 million.
